


Princess in Another Castle

by Catory



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 08:18:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13096119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catory/pseuds/Catory
Summary: Momose Saki was a medical student too. People forget that, sometimes.





	Princess in Another Castle

**Author's Note:**

> Btw posting this from phone so sorry for formatting errors i will corrwvt l8tr i wanna dieeeeee

_"Saki… I…"_

_"Hiiro? Hiiro!"_

"…You work for me now. You owe me that much, for your continued existence." Dan Masamune stops pacing and faces the recently revived Kujo Kiriya. "Do you understand?"

Kiriya doesn't move for a long second, and the whole room seems to hold its breath, waiting for his response.

Then he smiles, foxlike.

"Yeah, I gotcha. Makes sense to me-- you're the boss, boss. But hey, here's the thing. I get why I'm here, but…"

Kiriya jerks his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the third occupant of the room.

"What's _she_ doing here?"

Surgeon Momose Saki tightens her grip on the sleeves of her blouse.

* * *

  
_"Why didn't you say anything?! Hiiro, please!"_

Saki knows that lot of people at the university are confused about why she loves Hiiro. After all, Saki was good with people, liked being good with people. She _liked_ taking care of people and making them smile again. There was a reason that she was studying to become a pediatrician, after all.

Hiiro… wasn't any of those things.

Hiiro certainly wasn't good with people. Saki knows that amongst their classmates, there's a running joke that the day Kagami Hiiro smiled would be the day the world ended. Hiiro didn't seem to enjoy taking care of people-- of course he would be a good surgeon, they said. Nobody ever had to talk to their surgeon. Thank god for anesthesia, or Kagami would scare off all his patients with his sour face. But nobody could deny he was good at what he did, even if they hated him more than a little.

Saki smiles just a bit, thinking about it.  
Her friends would have laughed at her if they'd known, but secretly, Saki had always thought of Hiiro as a lone knight in shining armor. (Hahaha, wouldn't that make her his princess?) Oh, she knows it's a silly fantasy. But there was just something about the way that Hiiro carried himself that gave her that mental image. Hiiro would look cool in a suit of armor, Saki thinks idly to herself. And a cape, too! Off to do battle with demons and right wrongs and all that.

…He hasn't changed one bit. Saki clearly remembers the first time she'd ever met him. She'd been at the "unofficial" orientation afterparty, chatting with her classmates, when she'd spotted a tall student, dressed far too formally for this kind of rowdy event. He'd been surrounded in a semicircle by a group of half drunk students and Saki had just _known_ that this was going to end in trouble. She'd started making her way over, hoping to defuse the situation, when--

_"I'm going to be the best doctor in the world."_

He'd said, flatly. Simply. Like it was a truth of the world, and not just a personal goal. By chance, he'd said it during one of those periodic lulls in conversation and music, and the whole room had heard him loud and clear.

Whispers started up. Talking about how _that guy over there seemed so arrogant,_ how _he must have been rich-- look at his suit! Do you think he paid his way into this school? He must have, jeez. I don't think I like him at all._

Saki hadn't been listening to the whispers.

Saki had been looking at Hiiro, and the way he recognized that the whole room had turned against him and the way that he chose not to care, and in that moment, Saki believed with all her heart that he _meant_ it.

Kagami Hiiro was going to be the best doctor in the world, and Saki wanted to watch him become just that.

* * *

  
_"I've been a bad boyfriend, I think. I didn't want you worry about me, but…"_

The day after Hiiro's funeral (there wasn't even anything left to _bury_ ), Saki meets with her academic advisor to switch focuses from pediatrics to surgery. Everyone she knows tries to tell her that it's a terrible idea, that surgery was far too intensive for her and she would have to cram in order to take the necessary classes and that she shouldn't make rash decisions in her grief.

She ignores them all.

It _is_ hard. Her grades dip below class average, before she starts pulling regular all nighters just to keep up.

She's no genius-- she's no Hiiro. She'll never be able to live and breathe medical terminology like he used to, she'll never be able to wield a scalpel like it's an extension of her very soul.

So she'll just have to work twice-- no, three times-- as hard as everyone else to pull this off.

Momose Saki graduates at the top of her class, in two years' time. Her hair is pulled back into a severe bun, the dark circles under her eyes are carefully hidden with concealer, and she does not smile as she takes her diploma.

(She shouldn't be the one standing here.)

* * *

  
_"No, nononono Hiiro, please, don't go there has to be a mistake, please--"_

Saki turns the Game Driver over in her hands. She might recognize it just a bit, she thinks. She'd seen one in the CR office… probably. She'd had other things on her mind at the time.

It doesn't look like a medical tool at all. It looks like a toy. Nothing like her sterilized steel scalpels and scissors.

Director Kagami-- Hiro's father-- looks at her sadly. "Of course, we wouldn't dream of forcing you into CR-- you have your own duties, naturally, and this would be a burden on top of those. But there are so few qualified candidates…"

"I'll do it." Saki says before her mind catches up with her mouth.

"I want to save as many patients as I can with my own two hands," she says. "After all, I'm going to be the best doctor in the world."

Director Kagami looks at her for a second, like he knows what she's thinking, before standing up.

"Then, I welcome you to the Cyber Rescue Center… Kamen Rider Brave. I look forward to working with you."

* * *

  
_"You ran off and I… I didn't know how to say sorry. I never wanted to make you sad, Saki. Please don't be sad."_

As expected, CR duties are hard to balance with her surgeries. Saki has been living off of takeout for the past week because she's just too wiped out to cook when she gets back to her apartment late at night. She hadn't expected Bugster operations to be so much physical exercise. It's exhausting both physically and mentally, in a way that surgery simply isn't. Thank god for those high school kendo classes. It's been a while, but her body remembers the forms well enough. Every little bit helps.

After all, she can't possibly just leave the Bugster operations to the others.

That Emu kid was nice, but Saki can't help but think that he's hopelessly naïve. Making a patient smile again? What was the _point_ of that? As a doctor, wasn't her job to save as many patients as possible? There were some things that only doctors could do, and let others sort out the rest!

...Emu reminds Saki of the way she used to be. She can barely stand the sight of him on bad days. She imagines he must dislike her quite a bit.

It's alright. She's not here to make friends.

And then, that other doctor showed up.

Hanaya… Taiga.

It had taken her a moment to recognize him. His hair has gone white in places, and he carried himself differently.

Saki remembers hating him. If he hadn't failed, if he hadn't made a mistake, then Hiiro--

She still wants to blame him so badly. But it's been five years now, and… she remembers the first time she'd failed to save a patient.

(Sakura Chihiro, age 19. Hit by a car while walking home. Five fractured ribs and internal bleeding in the abdominal region, and Saki had been the only one available for the surgery, even though she'd only been an intern at the time. She hadn't been able to stop the bleeding. They'd said that it wasn't her fault, but…)

Saki knows what it's like to fail her patients. She sees Dr. Hanaya's haunted eyes and the way that he clenches his teeth when Graphite shows up and she knows that Dr. Hanaya hasn't forgotten about Hiiro any more than she has.

She still doesn't like him. He's cocky and rude and he keeps getting in the way of her operations, but she can recognize a front when she sees one.

And if she hated him for having that, it would be the same as admitting that she hated herself, wouldn't it?

* * *

  
_"Hiiro, don't talk-- there has to be something we can do, anything-- what do you mean the operation failed!?"_

These past few weeks have been a _lot_. It's insane to look back at. That coroner had died, and then unraveling the mystery of Emu had taken precedence over everything. And then Dan Kuroto (arrogant _slimeball_ ) had put his plans into motion, only to be killed my that strange Bugster that seemed fixated on Emu. (And Saki has her _own_ ideas about what that means.)

The advent of Kamen Rider Chronicle had sent the entirety of CR into crisis mode. Thousands of copies had already been shipped out, and hundreds of cases had been reported on the first day alone. Saki knows that the rest of CR is getting worn down. She'd caught Emu sleeping on the couch rather than waste time taking a train home, and all she'd thought was _damn, I wanted the couch._

Things couldn't continue like this. So they didn't.

...Instead, they'd escalated.

And now Dan Masamune was back, in a ludicrously overpowered form with impossible-to-counter attacks. (She was going to _shove her sword up Kuroto's ass,_ had he never heard of a little thing called game balance? )

And Dan Masamune had the Proto Gashats.

Dan Masamune had the Proto Gashats that contained the data of the erased.

The Proto Gashats that contained--

Dan Masamune smiles at her. He's got black eyes like a shark, some forgotten whimsical part of her whispers. You shouldn't trust anything he says.

Saki tightens her grip on her sword as she gives him her answer.

She hopes that she's doing the right thing.

* * *

  
_"I guess I won't become the best doctor in the world like this, will I? Please… forgive me."_

_"HIIRO!"_

Dan Masamune's office is nothing at all like the CR office. Saki can't quite describe why, but there's just something missing. The people, probably.

…Saki misses working with them all so badly. She misses Poppy and Emu and Director Kagami; she even misses Taiga and Nico, sometimes.

She could just… go back.

She _should_ go back. There's no way that Dan Masamune is going to give Hiiro back so easily, not when he's the only thing keeping her in check.

But Saki bites her tongue. She's not doing this for her sake. When Dan Masamune brings Hiiro back, she'll apologize to everyone.

(Saki-san, do you think that Hiiro would have wanted this?!)

Well, the dead couldn't want anything. That's why she was doing this… wasn't she? She'd made up her mind! She'd bring Hiiro back and everything would be alright again!

So what was she doing down here again?

Hiiro stands before her and he smiles at her sadly (mechanically).

I guess I won't become the best doctor in the world like this, will I? Please forgive me.

I guess I won't become the best doctor in the world like this, will I? Please forgive me.

I guess I won't become the best doctor in the world like this, will I? Please forgive me.

She can't take this anymore.

Saki grabs Hiiro by the shoulders and shakes him. "Hiiro, please wake up!"

I guess I won't become the best doctor in the world like this, will I? Please forgive me.

"I just want to see you smile again, Hiiro!"

I guess I won't become the best doctor in the world like this, will I? Please forgive me.

"I just want you to be here by my side!"

I guess I won't become the best doctor in the world like this, will I?

"Hiiro," she sobs, wrinkling the neatly pressed lapels of his coat. She presses her forehead to his chest, and she feels no heartbeat. "I don't know what to _do_."

_Please forgive me._


End file.
